Starting up your very own home recording studio is the perfect way to develop your skills as a potential sound designer and create professional quality sound effects for home movies and film. The business of creating sound effects and soundscapes is often overlooked, and people forget how much effort is placed on creating effective audio for film and television. The great thing about sound design is that everything is a potential tool that can be recorded, mixed, layered and manipulated. This simple guide will give you an overview of the different pieces of kit you will need to begin recording.
Laptop and Software
A good laptop with added recording software is the best place to start. Without this you won't be able to add effects or layer up different recordings to create unique sound effects. There are many different recording software packages available, usually through subscription or a one-off fee. You may even find that your laptop has recording software already included. Either way, creating effects is easy enough and once finished can be placed onto a royalty-free site for others to use, or sold online. If you want to create your own films then some additional video editing software will be needed. First create a bank of sound effects, and then use these to populate your film footage. Just be sure that before buying any software that your laptop will run it, large amounts of processing power and RAM may be needed to avoid glitches and clock syncing issues.
Microphone and Sound Card
You can buy cheap microphones that plug directly into your laptop via USB, however for better quality and more variety use one that uses an XLR socket and plugs into an external audio interface (AI). This AI will allow you to connect the microphone to your laptop and adjust the input levels to avoid distortion. It is effectively an external sound card that may or may not have a few extra effects built in to it. However, if you wish to record sounds 'on location' then there are plenty of portable recording devices that allow you to record, then transfer the files onto your laptop. These are great of you want to record natural sounds like streams or animals, but may suffer from background noise from the wind or traffic.
Headphones
A good quality pair of headphones will allow you to listen to your recordings and hear what the microphone is picking up. Commercial headphones are perfect once you have created the sound effect, as these usually boost lower and upper frequencies which replicates what you'd hear on a home cinema set-up. However monitors (a different type of headphone) have a flat frequency response, and are generally better for mixing so that you can hear the sound in its unaffected natural state. For more information, contact a business such as Tivoli Hi-Fi Pty Ltd.
Share19 September 2016
When I was a kid I dreamed that I'd have a robot to help me do all my day-to-day tasks by the time I was grown. Unfortunately we don't have robots around the house, yet, but there are a range of technologies that do make my life much easier. From cookers that help reduce cooking time, to robotic vacuum cleaners and timers to make devices turn on at the right time, there are so many new technologies that can make life around the house much easier. This blog is all about technology for the home. Thank you for stopping by!
